I want to be emperor

Chapter 822 120mm Howitzer

In the competition of many weapons projects, Hebei Arms Company has the most confidence in the 75mm field gun and mountain gun.

Even the confidence in the 75mm series of artillery is more sufficient than that of the Type [-] rifle.

Because the Type [-] rifle seems to be very good, it also occupies the first-mover advantage. It has become the standard rifle of the Guards and is also equipped in small batches in the army.

But this rifle is not without competitors. The Type [-] rifle of Huguang Arms Company is their most powerful competitor. The army was also equipped with this rifle on a small scale before, and the navy and armed tax police were also equipped with a rifle. batch for testing.

The Type [-] rifles use a lifting bolt action that can have a higher rate of fire. At the same time, their barrels are also well designed. With the metal bullets developed by Huguang Weapons Company, the overall shooting accuracy is very high.

High rate of fire and high precision are the important features of the Type [-] rifle, but because higher precision also requires a higher level of production, the resulting production costs are also higher.

Higher costs bring higher prices, which is an important reason why the Type [-] rifles failed in the army's selection of next-generation standard rifles... because for the army, in fact, each new generation of rear-loading rifles It can meet the needs of the Army in terms of performance, and it is the core demand of the Army to obtain new rifles at the lowest possible price when the performance meets the needs.

It is impossible for the Army to spend more to purchase Type [-] rifles for a little performance advantage.

As for the Type [-] rifle, the bolt mechanism is simple in structure, the barrel's rifling design is quite satisfactory, and even the bullets are center-firing flange bullets that require the least craftsmanship.

Therefore, on the premise of achieving a certain performance, the cost of production can be suppressed, and finally the army can be quoted 30 Chu yuan, and a related agreement has been reached with the army, that is, the price will be gradually reduced according to the batch, and the production is expected to reach [-]. After the purchase, the price can be reduced to fifteen Chu yuan a piece.

This price... It made the other four weapon companies vomit blood... If they sell the army's new rifles at this price, they will suffer a lot.

So to a certain extent, the Type [-] rifle of Hebei Weapons Company can win purely because of its price advantage.

But in the 75mm artillery project, Hebei Weapons Company has a greater advantage, that is, at present, they are the only ones in the Great Chu Empire that have finished rifled artillery.

No semicolons.

Most of the breech-loading rifled artillery of other companies are still in the research and development state, not to mention entering the military service, even if they have entered the experimental equipment.

The same is true for the 75mm mountain cannon project. According to Hebei Arms Company's understanding, currently only one company has sufficient technical reserves and corresponding models, and can produce finished products.

Therefore, in the 75mm mountain cannon project, Hebei Weapons Company is very confident, and even wants to make a fortune on this project, so as to subsidize the early losses of the [-]-type rifle project.

But what people didn't expect was that Huguang Arms Company suddenly came up with a finished product.

When bidding, the other party mainly focused on the cost-effective advantage, and directly lowered the price by a large margin, which was several hundred Chu yuan cheaper than the products of their Hebei Weapons Company... and promised that as long as the military places an order, it will be able to provide the first one within a month. A batch of finished products.

After the last round of bidding, the confident Hebei Weapons Company directly lost in the 75mm mountain cannon project!
The Huguang Arms Company's 75mm mountain gun, which received an order from the military, was officially finalized as the '34-year 75mm light howitzer'.

The gun has a caliber of 75 mm, a barrel length of 970 mm, and a barrel diameter of [-] times. This multiple diameter belongs to the standard howitzer range in contemporary times.

This artillery, like other mountain cannons, focuses on mobility... but relatively speaking, it is slightly heavier than the mountain cannon project of Hebei Weapons Company.

The combat weight is only 250kg, which is a few kilograms higher than the lower limit of 250kg required by the Army. The marching weight has also reached 360kg, which also exceeds the Army's previous procurement requirements.

But in the face of the price, the Army chose not to see it...

Of course, although the weight exceeds the standard, as a mountain cannon, the mobility of this artillery is naturally not bad. After all, the marching weight of this thing is only more than 300 kilograms.

The difference of [-] to [-] kilograms has little effect.

The core components of this 75mm mountain cannon, such as the gun mount, wheels, and barrel, can also be disassembled. When necessary, it can be carried on the back, and even under special circumstances, multiple people can carry these parts directly.

Launching the current army standard 75mm caliber cylindrical high-explosive collision fuze grenade, coupled with the maroon propellant that the military has begun to use in recent years, the maximum effective range can reach 500 meters, and the rate of fire can reach two rounds per minute to three rounds.

Of course, if you want to achieve three rounds per minute, you need a very elite battery.

Under normal circumstances, in actual combat, it is estimated that the rate of fire is about two rounds per minute.

But even this rate of fire is quite good. Among all the artillery of the Great Chu Empire, only the 32-year-style 75mm field gun equipped before and the earlier 65mm smoothbore gun can reach this rate of fire.

The reason why the 65mm smoothbore gun can achieve this rate of fire is because it uses paper-wrapped fixed ammunition... Because of this high rate of fire, the Great Chu Empire Army has a soft spot for this thing for more than [-] years!
Regardless of the various front-mounted smoothbore guns that came out later, they could not shake the status of the 65mm field gun series in the army.

The actual rate of fire of other muzzle-loading smoothbore guns, which used split ammunition, was much slower.

The current new generation of breech-loading rifled guns has actually reached the limit of an annealing gun in terms of rate of fire. No matter how much you improve the loading or propellant, it is actually useless, because it is an unloading gun. If you want to continue firing, you must reset it!

The reset of the artillery has become the biggest factor limiting the rate of fire of the artillery. Therefore, if it is further improved, the gun mount must be improved. For example, the tube retreat artillery, also known as the rapid-fire artillery, is beyond the technical foundation of the Great Chu Empire. up.

After the 75mm mountain artillery project was acquired by Huguang Arms Company.

The army called it hot iron, and it also took advantage of the opportunity to invite bids for larger-caliber rear-loaded rifled guns to serve as army-level field guns and, by the way, as siege artillery.

The Great Chu Empire Army has always relied heavily on artillery in battles, and especially likes to go out with a lot of large-caliber artillery when fighting fortified battles.

This has been the case from the early large-caliber mortars to the current short-barreled front-loading smoothbore howitzers.

In the previous campaigns in India and Africa, the Army was very keen on the large-caliber front-loading rifled guns equipped by the Navy.

The navy's 150mm caliber front-loading rifled gun is more powerful than the 250mm caliber smoothbore gun equipped by their army!

This is absolutely intolerable.

But the Army doesn't want to engage in nondescript front-loading rifled guns, so it has been dragging it until now.

Nowadays, the technology of rear-loading rifled steel guns has almost been solved. The large-caliber long-barreled rear-loading artillery required by the navy has not been developed because it is relatively difficult to use separate ammunition.

However, with a slightly smaller caliber, it is not a big problem to use medium-caliber artillery with fixed shells.

Both Jiangnan Arms Company and Guangdong-Guangzhou Arms Company have conducted in-depth research on this aspect.

After some bidding, the 120mm howitzer under the Jiangnan Arms Company won the order for 34 artillery pieces from the army, and received the official number: 120mm howitzer of the [-]th year.

The gun also belongs to the category of standard howitzers, the barrel diameter is 23 times!
With such a large caliber, coupled with the long barrel, it is doomed that this thing will not be light in weight!
The weight of the column reached two and a half tons, and the weight of the march reached nearly five tons!
This weight also means that this kind of artillery looks like a howitzer, but it is actually difficult to maneuver in the field. It is okay to maneuver in terrain with good domestic traffic conditions, but it is very difficult to maneuver overseas or in complex terrain. up.

The army purchases this thing only as a military-level strategic artillery, and the number of purchases is not much for the time being, only more than 60 pieces are purchased... Of course, it is also because this thing is too expensive.

However, although this thing is heavy and expensive, it is really powerful if it can't stand it!

The maximum effective range can reach an astonishing 800 meters. With this range, the army can completely blow up the cities of the natives. The natives don't even know that the Chu army has come.

And the power of the explosion is also very astonishing. Like those old antiques, the smoothbore guns that fire spherical shells are completely incomparable.

With this thing, the Army is ready to throw away all those equally heavy smoothbore cannons.

Because this kind of howitzer is relatively heavy and difficult to maneuver, the Army also needs a lightweight howitzer of the same caliber to match it...in order to keep up with the advancement of troops and even deploy overseas.

Therefore, a 120mm light howitzer that also belongs to Jiangnan Arms Company was purchased. The technical source of this gun is the same as that of the 120mm howitzer.

This 34mm light-weight howitzer of the 120 model has a caliber of 120mm, a barrel diameter of eleven times, a column weight of 4000 kilograms, and a marching weight of [-] kilograms. The maximum effective range Can reach [-] meters.

Although the weight of this thing is much heavier than the 75mm field gun, it is still within the acceptable range, and it can be pulled into the battlefield with a few more horses.

Of course, it is still somewhat difficult to perform fast maneuvers in complex terrain.

A 800mm field gun with a weight of only more than 500 kilograms and a marching weight of more than 75 kilograms is difficult to maneuver in that poor place in Myanmar, let alone a 120mm light howitzer of more than two tons.

With the end of the bidding for this type of artillery, there will be four types of breech-loading rifled artillery officially in service in the Great Chu Empire Army.

The 32-year-old 75mm field gun is used as the main artillery of the division.

The 34-year-old 75mm mountain artillery, which is also a division-level artillery, is mainly used in complex terrain, and it will be used by regiment-level troops when necessary.

The 34mm howitzer of the 120 type is the main artillery of the army.

The 34mm light howitzer of the 120 type is actually a military-level artillery, but it can be selected to be used with division-level troops.

In addition to these four main guns, the Army is actually looking for a lighter rear-loading rifled gun to replace the 65mm smoothbore field gun they have used for many years.

For this reason, a bidding notice has been issued to the five major weapon companies, looking for a light infantry artillery that can be attached to regiment-level troops and can be strengthened for battalion-level troops when necessary. The combat weight must not exceed 500 kilograms, and the marching weight must not exceed [-] kilograms. , the maximum effective range shall not be less than [-] meters.

Hebei Arms Company, which just lost the 75mm mountain cannon project, is also very enthusiastic about this project. It has dispatched technicians to carry out technical research, trying to make up for this project.

After all, to be honest, the number of future equipment for this seemingly light little guy will not be much less than that of the 75mm series of artillery.

The Great Chu Empire Army attaches great importance to battalion-level artillery.

After all, in actual combat, this kind of battalion-level artillery is actually used the most. As for the higher-level division-level artillery, to be honest, unless you are fighting a large-scale battle, you will not see this thing on the battlefield.

Just like the current 65mm smoothbore field gun and 115mm smoothbore field gun, it seems that the 115mm smoothbore field gun is the main artillery, but in fact most of the army's conventional battles, especially in overseas areas, are fought with hundreds of people There is no need for 115mm smoothbore field guns at all, and there is no way to run around with more than a ton of 115mm field guns.

Most of the time, overseas armies actually use 65mm smoothbore field guns in combat.

Battalion-level support artillery is used in many scenarios and frequently, and the Army naturally has a lot of requirements for this.

Not only the performance requirements are high, but the price is also required to be cheap, not only the artillery itself is cheap, but also easy to maintain and use, and the shells should not be too expensive.

After all, unlike artillery such as 120mm howitzers, most of them are just decorations. Battalion-level support artillery is on the battlefield every day.

In the case of frequent use, the consumption of shells will not be low.

Therefore, the cost of shells should not be too expensive, and the army cannot afford them if they are too expensive...

It's better and cheaper, which is not so easy to do.

(End of this chapter)